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Fort Brown
Fort Brown was a military post of the United States Army in Texas during the later half of 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. It resides along the southernmost ruins of the town of Brownsville in southern Texas. Noted to be one of the last, few settlements along the Rio Bravo, Fort Brown is nestled in a small, artificial lake bed less than a mile from the River Border. It now stands as a thriving trade town, dealing in Cattle and Bulk Goods, along with being a hub for caravans headed North into Texas and South into Tamaulipas. History Pre-War History In 1845, the U.S. Army began construction of a new fort (then known as "Fort Texas") on the northern side of the Rio Bravo River. This fort was meant to watch over the Mexican Border to ensure peace and a means defense in case one was ever needed. The next year, the fort played a role during the opening of the Mexican-American War. During the Siege of Fort Texas, two Americans were killed, including Major Jacob Brown. In honor of the fallen major, General Zachary Taylor renamed the post Fort Brown. In 1849, the city of Brownsville, Texas, was established not far from the fort's grounds. During the Civil War, control of the fort shifted sides several times along the course of the war, ending with Confederate control over it until the end of the war. In the following years of 1867–1869, a permanent fort was established on its location. By the end of the Civil War, Fort Brown remained a heavily populated, and well armed US fort on the border of the so-called 'Wild South'. It would continue to house US troops through the remainder of its years, staging garrison up until 1946, when it ceased to be a training facility for the Army and given to the City of Brownsville and Texas Southmost College in 1948. In 1949, developments began on the fort, many changes were made for it to remain 'Campus Friendly' and yet retain a historical accuracy. A small memorial site was erected, as well as the old Hospital Grounds and barracks being converted into a small, yet well-stocked museum. The remainder of the buildings would see a complete renovation of their interiors into student libraries and dorms. Fort Brown and The Blast While fort Brown was not directly hit during the Atomic Standoff of 2077, several medium-sized warhead did indeed strike several key locations along the Gulf Coast, including a major electronics and telecommunications headquarters less than 100 miles away. This led to large amounts of nuclear fallout and residual radiation to rain down on the mostly idle town. Within the first few months, over half of the town's population was either dead or experiencing horrific mutations, those who could escape (mainly College staff, students and nearby residents) fled onto the campus in hopes of some means of survival. Post-War With the steady decrease of fallout and radiation in the area, many former residents of Brownsville emerged from the rubble of the once peaceful with the hope of finding some sort of settlement in which to survive, luckily, the school campus was relatively unscathed of damage. Once significant radiation levels in the community dropped, residents began to move into the fort, fortifying themselves inside the old structures as they prepared for what the newly made wasteland had to throw at them. As the residents dug in, their population began to increase, small elements of a community were formed, and through it, stronger bonds arose. After many hard years in the fresh landscape of post-apocalyptic, the small community began to flourish, survivors from all over the county began pouring in, and the fort bustled with life, walls were erected, towers built and trenches dug, the fort returned back to its lively state. The residents, now world-weary of what was out there, began to create a form of government for their community, the Committee was born. Gathering up all the former Teachers, Scientists and men of wisdom the dwelling had to offer, government positions were made, lawmen were appointed, all under the strict teachings of the former College Headmaster, Monty Willfreid. Monty was a tough man who, at the head of the Committee slowly began to turn the Fort and its residents into a primary stopping point for Merchants, ranchers and mercenaries heading south into Tamaulipas. He also pioneered the development of Fort Brown's government, turning the handful of lawmen and legislators that ruled Fort Brown into a true government. He created departments for Law Enforcement, with special offices for illicit materials and the regulation of land under their control. By the time 2100 came around Fort Brown was a prominent ranching town and trading post, this, however, wasn't all good news for the people, for as they grew bigger they attracted the attention of the various ruffians that hounded the wastes. A large gang of Comancheros, led by Don Domingo Garza, had taken notice of the growing settlement and decided it would be a fine place to make themselves Kings of, and thus set out to conquer Fort Brown. Numbering 84 men they quickly arrived at the town's border and began to harass small time ranchers and farmers that lived near the border of government control. The Committee at first believed the raids were the act of some small group of bandits hiding out in the ruins of Brownsville, but as they continued and intensified the government grew weary and began to post more officers near the edges of town. After a particularly violent raid on a small ranching settlement, a single officer followed the Comancheros back to their camp in the ruins of the Brownsville and was shocked to see the amount of men that sat around their campfires. He rushed back to Fort Brown with his findings, The Committee thoroughly disturbed by this revelation began to look for options. They had perhaps 25 deputies currently patrolling Fort Brown and the surrounding area, these men were however lightly armed with their armaments being no more powerful then revolvers and a few Carbines. This in mind The Committee decided that the best option would be to create a militia. They put a call out for volunteers to join the Militia, with a total of 35 people coming forward, add that onto the 25 deputies they now had a sizeable force to help defend the Fort. The militiamen, led by Sheriff Tomas Aguado now prepared for the fight they were about to endure. Drilling as often as possible the militia, armed with hunting rifles, a few SMGs, and whatever other weapons the town could dig up sat in the trenches that surrounded Fort Brown in wait for the Comancheros. On orders from The Committee, all residents living outside the walls of Fort Brown were ordered to move within the fort walls at once, many complied without hesitation, not wanting to deal with the Comanchero's wrath. As the area was cleared out of targets for the Comancheros they finally decided to attack the fort itself. At 6:00am on a Sunday, there was a great wooping from town and suddenly 84 men mounted on horseback charged out of the darkness and towards the defenses of the Fort. The militiamen and deputies waited until they were within the range markers they had placed when the Comancheros had entered the field of fire, they opened up, tearing the Comancheros to pieces as they rode. Five minutes later the charging Comancheros had half of their number chopped down by a single salvo, and those who were left quickly began to waver. However even as they turned to run they continued to be picked apart by gunfire. The Comancheros were wiped out at the foot of Fort Brown by a bunch of half-trained militiamen. With the destruction of the Comancheros, The Committee released the good people back to their farms, and ranches, leaving those who lived within Fort Brown relieved that they no longer had to live cramped into their fort. The years to follow were known as the Boom Years. Boom Years The years that followed the defeat of the Comancheros and Don Garza were ones of great prosperity and success for Fort Brown. With the help of some Brahmin, the people of Fort Brown were able to carve a path through the irradiated ruins of Brownsville. Through these cleared alleys the Fort's ranchers, farmers and other tradesmen began to trade with the outside world. At first, the roads only saw caravans leaving the area of Fort Brown, but as merchants spread out into the wasteland they brought the attention of their home to the towns and settlements they encountered. Soon every farmer, rancher, and town within 15 miles of Fort Brown were sending caravans to sell and trade goods within the Fort's protective walls. To this end the town began to become a beacon of trade and civilization in the South Texas-Tamaulipas region. The Committee created the Trade Commission, with the responsibility of regulating the various trade routes that entered and left the area of Fort Brown and organizing the caravans into an organized system of trade. The Second Protestant Republic The arrival of Reverend Martin Weir in Fort Brown marked the end of the Boom Years and the start of a much more oppressive era, of religious oppression and totalitarian rule. Reverend Weir was a clergyman of the Reformed Methodist Church, having set out from the ruins of the failed First Protestant Republic setup in the ruins of Texas City was determined to fix what his comrades had done wrong in Texas City and to spread the word of God to the Godless Mexicans. He arrived in Fort Brown in 2162 to find the Fort under the rather weak leadership, the original council members for Fort Brown had long since died of either old age or disease and thus, their replacements were needless to say rather sub-par. The Reverend set up his church in an old building located south of the Fort itself and from there began preaching to the local populace of farmers, ranchers, and other laborers. His powerful speeches and oratory skills quickly attracted a flock of some 50 people, and a year later that number had grown to 103, and he had gone from preaching from within the building to outside in the elements. He declared that the town's various issues (ranging from crime to bad crop yields) were the result of the devil's nectar and that the only solution was to make the whole town go dry, and to convert the populace to the true version of Christianity. With the help of his supporters, he was elected onto The Committee and began a rapid series of changes from there. Through his charisma, he gained the support of the town Sheriff and along with him the police force and militia, thus on July 5, 2168, he launched a coup against the current government. It was virtually bloodless and the Committee was deposed as Reverend Weir was placed at the head of the new government, which he declared the Second Protestant Republic. With the support of his allies throughout the town, he began to reorganize the government. Turning the Department of Crime Prevention & Protection into a theocratic militia, whose job it was to enforce the rulings of the Reverend himself, he even deposed the Sheriff, replacing him with one of his own supporters Gerald Conway or "Bloody Gerry". Next he enacted a series of Blue Laws upon the town, declaring that the sale, consumption, production or owning of drugs or Alcohol was punishable by death, other laws included that every citizen must be a member of the Protestant Church, there would be no other denominations accepted with the town, a curfew was to be enforced from 9pm-9am and all people must be registered with the government. As these crackdowns began, Reverend Weir led the first of many raids against the surrounding towns, mounted on horseback the Reverend and a posse of 45 militiamen rode into the small town of San Benito (a town whose economy revolved around the production of booze and drugs), burning and destroying everything in sight. When the town was done burning they put the populace to the sword and returned home. This raid was the first of many that were to come to the poor people of the wasteland, trade between the Fort and the surrounding towns stopped, merchants stopped visiting the town for fear of becoming victims of the Reverends cruel form of justice and the economy as a whole began to stagnate. It was only 2172 when the people of Fort Brown began to get restless as their businesses failed, taxes stacked up and money ran short. They soon no longer saw their benevolent overlord as their savior but rather a cruel dictator that was ruining their town. However as tempers began to rise along came a man named Brian Hiller, leader of the 1st Artillery Regiment, a mercenary company roaming the South Texas wastes and looking for a place to setup camp. Brian and his men setup camp outside Fort Brown, with their array of mortars, displayed prominently for all of Fort Brown to see. The next day Brian approached the gates and asked to be let in, the guard refused. Calmly accepting the refusal he walked away from the gate, a moment later the gate was blown off its hinges by an artillery shell. Brian and his men rushed through the gate and in three hours of the bloody fighting took Fort Brown, deposing Reverend Weir. Thus was the end of the Second Protestant Republic, but what was to come became known as the artillery administration, as the mortars the 1st Artillery Regiment had brought along would become the main way the new military government under Brian Hiller would conduct diplomacy. The Artillery Administration Brian Hiller after his successful takeover began to fortify the town, under his careful direction the town's old defenses were repaired and shored up. During his project to refortify the Fort he made several changes to the way the town was run, removing most of the Blue Laws that once governed the towns he once again allowed booze and drugs to come into the city for sale and to be created by merchants, and for a time the people actually liked Brian. However, this all changed when a group of three fanatics to the Reformed Methodist Church attempted to shoot their way into the Fort's administration building, after being killed by his men Brian became convinced that there was a conspiracy against him and thus lucked himself within his administration building. From within the Brick and cement of the old Administration building Brian declared martial law and set a curfew from Dusk till Dawn, he followed this up with a series of rather bizarre and draconian orders. There would be no gathering of people in groups larger than three, the Reformed Methodist Church was banned along with all other religions, anyone caught speaking Spanish, German, Italian or Latin were to be executed at once, and all people must come out of their homes at twelve o'clock exactly, line up in lines and allow their homes to be searched for contraband. Brian's rapid decline into madness was only the start of the town's issues, making good on his order banning gatherings of more than three people he began to use one of his unit's precious mortars to enforce the law. Sitting in his office, he would scan the streets with a pair of binoculars searching for suspicious activity, when he spotted a group of three people talking harmlessly in the streets, he started dropping mortar rounds down upon them, shooting through his office's skylight. The result was four people dead (one was just passing by) and another three injured. This only served to deepen the dislike the townsfolk already heading for Brian and his men and thus planted the seeds for the Fort's next revolt. Gerald Conway, who had served the town under Reverend Weir's regime, began to plan the town's revolt against the "Artillery Administration" as he dubbed it with his friends and he began to gather support for the revolt. It wasn't hard to find people who had been sufficiently pissed off by Brian's actions and thus he soon had formed a small army of rebels, all hiding out in their homes waiting for the day to come. However, upon surveying the firepower of Brian's troops, Gerald realized he would need more than just a few hired guns to overwhelm the 1st Artillery Regiment and thus began to seek help from outside the territory of Fort Brown. The men Gerald managed to gather were not by any means of the best moral fiber or the purest of intentions. The gathered gang of foreign support Gerald gathered included; Jeffery Holmes, the head of a gang of greasers, Alexander Perez, son of famed cattle baron Samuel Perez and just as power hungry, John Warren, an old clergymen from the Reformed Methodist Church and Cesare Xavier, a member of the Xavier-Bonaparte Aristocracy. With this group of mercenaries and supporters, Gerald intended to overwhelm the forces of Brian Hiller and his military regime, claiming it for himself. It was only a week later that the rebels, led by Gerald himself left their homes around midnight, making their way through the darkness when they arrived at the gates to Fort Brown they launched their attack. With the use of several flares, the rebels attacked the gate and it's guards from both within and without the walls, the surprised guards themselves were caught off guard and after a brief struggle, the guards were all either killed or captured. Then from atop the wall's battlements, Gerald fired off a single red flare signaling their allies that the gate was open. In the distance, the sound of motorcycle engines, naying of horses and the patter of feet upon the dry ground joined together as the various forces waiting in the ruins rushed the gates. Rushing into the Fort they killed what few guards were outside the administration building and then promptly surrounded the administration building. The 1st Artillery Regiment put up one hell of a fight, using everything they had at their disposal but in the end, the Administration building was overrun. The immediate aftermath was a three-hour kangaroo trial of the remaining members of the 1st Artillery Regiment, followed by an absolute breakdown in order. Gerald, was beside himself as his one-time allies now spent their time raping and pillaging the fort they had fought to liberate. With the help of the militia he managed to drive most of the various mercenaries out of the Fort before they could cause any serious damage, but by the end of the day, the town was no longer in the hands of the people. For the next decade, control of the town would be split between a varying group of criminal dictators, cattle barons, imperialists, and fanatics. The Dictators Jeffery "El Diablo de Mexi-Can-O" Holmes Jeffery Holmes and his gang of greasers and hoods were the first groups to claim control over Fort Brown. There really wasn't any rhyme or reason to Jeffery and his gang taking over other than there wasn't any kind of authority in Fort Brown at the time and they saw a chance to make themselves powerful. However, once in power they quickly realized the perks of holding power in the borders most prominent trading post, they suddenly had control over the various caravans that moved through the town and came to trade, along with being able to place sanctions on the various cattle drives that moved through the town. Their constant harassment trade caravans and cattle drives quickly earned the Fort a bad reputation as a place of languishing for daylight robbers and other crooks operating outside the law, and it was due to this reputation that the Fort's future rival the Duchy of Hartsville began to grow as a regional economic power. Yet it was not just the economy and reputation Jeffery and his men were ruining, they actively began to turn the Fort itself into a real sleazy place with plenty of drug dealers (and their cadres of hooked junkies), pimps and other trash began to enter the Fort as Jeffery and his gang thirsted for their next dose of Jet or Psycho, and when they weren't getting high they were committing all kinds of debauchery. Jeffery himself was known to have slept with at least 70 of the various whores that the crowd of pimps dragged into the Fort, and when the whores no longer suited him he had his men kidnap a girl who was a bit more "fresh". This disgusting, and vile streak of debauchery quickly earned the hatred of the townsfolk, but Jeffery hardly cared or even noticed. He had become hooked on Jet and was slowly killing himself, one dose at a time. Eventually, one day he and his gang having had enough of the Fort and it's increasingly hostile inhabitants so they decided to up and leave. Jumping on their long-neglected motorcycles they roared out of Fort Brown and off towards Zap-City where they hoped to join up with the Houston Hellions. Glad to have finally ridden themselves of Jeffery and his asinine nickname the townspeople began to re-setup The Committee when they were hit with a blast from the past, the fanatics were back and they were here to stay, all led by John "Papa Jack" Warren. John "Papa Jack" Warren When the days of nearly constant rape and pillaging of Fort Brown had ended following the fall of Brian Hiller and his mercenaries, John Warren or Papa Jack as he was known among his friends and family went to minister at the Reformed Methodist Church, which since the end of the reign of Reverend Weir had declined in attendance as the people either returned to their secular lives or went back to the old Roman Catholic faith that dominated the town prior to the rise of the church. Now with a flock only numbering about 25 people he once again restarted his ministry. However, he lacked the charisma of Reverend Weir and continued the raids against the various saloons and brothels that filled Fort Brown under the reign of Jeffery Holmes. However, when Jeffery and his gang of hoodlums rode off towards Zap-City, Papa Jack didn't hesitate to fill the vacuum. When he installed himself as ruler of Fort Brown he immediately assured the people he wouldn't be like his predecessor and would instead rule with a fair and even-handed ruler and would enforce the law along with cleansing the town of the various impurities that plagued it prior to his rise to power. He reinstated the many Blue Laws that were in place during Reverend Weir's time and with the help of his church's militia he cleaned up the of the smut that had infected it and the people, were naturally happy to have their town cleaned of the filth. However as soon as the drug dealers, junkies, whores, and pimps were run off Papa Jack began to consolidate his power. While learning from the mistakes of his former master he declared that all Christian faiths would be accepted within the Fort, but a faith was mandatory to live within the walls. He declared the Fort a "Holy City" and promptly went about assuring it would stay that way. Meeting secretly with his most hardline members John ordered that a special task force is formed to ensure that power within the Fort stayed with the Church this time and that the Blue Laws were followed, he called this task force the Christian Dignity Commission, which despite its flowery name was nothing more than a death squad. The Commission went about the streets at night snatching up people who didn't appear to be in obedience to the laws, drag them back to Fort's barracks and torcher them to death. After a year of this kind of violent rule, the people of Fort Brown once again were growing tired of Papa Jack's constant flurry of bans on "sinful" items, edicts banning nearly every kind of liquor, even consecration wine, angering the primarily Roman Catholic population. Along with that, the people of the Fort had begun to notice the various disappearances that plagued the town, and had picked up on the cries of pain coming from the Barracks at night, it didn't take too smart of a person to realize where the disappearing people were disappearing to. Led by their one-time enemy and one-time hero, Gerald Conway (now well into his sixties) an angry crowd of people gathered around the Administration building and led by Gerald the people fought their way past the Commission guards and into John's office where Gerald shot the man dead. After the revolt, the people, holding the first free elections since the end of the Committee years, elected Gerald Conway to become the Grand Mayor of Fort Brown a position Gerry gladly took. Gerald "Bloody Gerry" Conway Under Grand Mayor and Sheriff Gerald Conway, the Fort finally seemed to return to a general sense of normalcy it hadn't experienced for years. Gerald was a fine leader who had been angered when he saw his town begin to slip behind the rising star of Hartsville. Determined to get Fort Brown back to its position as the biggest and strongest trading town on the border he began to enact a series of measures. In the past Fort Brown had as a whole averted from participating in slave and drug trades for fear of attacks by such groups as Los Diamondbacks or the Valle Hermoso Rangers but with many of their regular caravans now avoiding the town due to the volatility of the local politics, now had to attract new merchants and tradesmen. The town was declared open to slavers hoping to move their "product" across the border without fear of harassment, along with welcoming in drug dealers with the sole clause being they couldn't sell their wares within Fort Brown. In order to regulate these more dangerous tradesmen and keep the town safe, Conway recreated the Department of Crime Prevention and Protection, numbering about 50 deputies and officers he led them as the town Sheriff, a position usually elected by the people. The trashy merchants began to flow in, escaping the various posses and vigilante groups that pursued them and seeking the protection of the town's sheriff and police. Yet to ensure that they didn't lose any of their regular caravans and merchants, Gerald devised an idea to repair the old Veterans Memorial Bridge which had lain dilapidated since the end of the war. The idea being they could reopen up the old, multi-lane bridge to foot traffic and charge a small fee for merchants crossing the border. This would also make coming to Fort Brown a much more efficient means of doing cross-border, rather than having to use a ferry that most border trade towns used and risk losing merchandise along with having to take the time to move one or two pack animals at a time across. In order to accomplish this repair on the bridge, Gerald had his men track down Vernon Watson a former member of The Architects. With Vernon's help, the Fort began to repair the bridge using volunteer work teams as a labor force. Within three weeks with the help of an old pre-war cement mixer and a lot of scrap metal the Bridge had two lanes that were safe for foot traffic. Thus, merchants began to stream across the Rio Grande, loading the Fort's treasury with the profits of toll fees. Then in a move to hurt Hartsville, Gerald hired a small squad of Badlanders from the Rio Grande Pack to harass caravans and cattle drives headed towards Hartsville. The help of the Badlanders' harassment quickly drove caravans towards Fort Brown, where Gerald quickly hiked the toll fee higher for caravans hoping to cross the bridge, going both North and South. The resurgence of Fort Brown as a trading post along the Rio Grande quickly drove several smaller towns out of business, turning them into ghost towns and attracted the attention of the powerful cattle ranchers from Mexico, most prominently the Perez Family. The Perez Family, long known for its niche in the Cattle Country for being the jack of all trades of ranching families saw Fort Brown as a funnel through which they could move their Longhorns without harassment from the Falfurrias ranchers. With this in mind, the aging Samuel Perez sent his oldest son Alexander Perez up north to Fort Brown to scout out the area, and to establish a family presence there. With his partner and bodyguard Mike Carerra, Alexander arrived in Fort Brown several days later, finding the town bustling with caravans of every type and from just about everywhere in the wasteland. From slavers selling their "wares" to Papist caravans and British caravans all hawking their own exotic products to the general populace in the town. After a brief stay in the town, he decided that the Fort was worth the Family's time and thus sent word down to his father to have their men escort a small herd of Longhorns up to Fort Brown so they could establish a presence in the town. Meanwhile, Gerald continued his own personal war on the Duchy of Hartsville, trying to run Fort Brown's biggest competitor into the ground. Seeing that the Duchy was now sending several armed guards with each caravan, Gerald decided to step up his game, from hiring a few Badlanders to renting out whole mercenary companies, most notably the Texas Independent Cavalry. These roughneck mercs were all the product of years of fighting in the Cattle Country and Northwestern Corridor between the various factions. Some hailed from The Fighting 33rd, the Imperials, or the various cattlemen's bureaus of the Cattle Country, all were proficient riders and expert shots with the weapons of their choice. These were the men Gerald hired to run Hartsville out of business, and they took to their assigned task well. The Texans quickly formed up around Hartsville and began to ambush caravans, harass cattle drives and attack outlying farms and ranches, essentially isolating Hartsville from the rest of the wasteland. Then began the actual siege, using dynamite, molotov cocktails and any sort of improvised explosives they could track down they began to attack the town's walls. Hartsville was now cut off from the outside world, its citizens driven within the walls and the town's supplies slowly running out, the town began to look at its options. Officially the Doge of Hartsville declared that the town was doing just fine and would be able to weather the assault by the Texans, to his personal advisors and to the heads of the town's prominent trade families he conceded that unless something was done soon they would have to either surrender or face starvation. Yet the next three days brought welcome good news to the town, while digging a well in the Gonzalez part of town, a well digger had discovered an old tunnel that ran underneath the town. With the help of several other diggers, they explored the tunnel and found that it ran to the Rio Grande to the South and further North into the basement of an old pre-war home. Clearly, the tunnel they had discovered was used by drug runners. Elated the Doge, sent an envoy down both ends of the tunnel along with some armed guards, they quickly made contact with various merchants and on credit bought up enough supplies to last the town at least another three weeks. Meanwhile, work parties were sent down into the tunnels themselves to reinforce the ancient supports and to make repairs on collapses. Through these tunnels, Hartsville was able to move enough supplies through to keep the town well stocked with supplies, ammo, and weaponry. After several months of failed attempts to seize the town, the Texans backed out of their contract with Gerald. However, the damage had been done, the town had been gutted of its ability to function as a successful trade town, giving Fort Brown the lead. Gerald would rule for the remainder of his life until 2220, however, a figure would seize control of Fort Brown. As Gerald Conway passed on (leaving his blood-soaked mayorship to no one), Alexander Perez, by this time one of the most powerful men in the town declared himself the new Grand Mayor of Fort Brown and with the help of his families personal militia, he placed himself firmly in control of Fort Brown. Alexander Perez Mike Carrera Cesare Xavier Government Brownsville Volunteer Militia The Fort Brown Volunteer Militia is as old as the town itself, established to help fight off a marauding gang of Comancheros the militia has remained an essential part in protecting the fort's populace from enemies from within and without. In terms of training and equipment, there is no set training regimen or any kind of standard equipment, the militiamen are armed with whatever firearms they own, thus, the firepower of the militia varies wildly, with members being armed with everything from a simple 10mm Pistol to a high-end Plasma Rifle. In terms of its role in the community, the militia is not a regular force, rather it is called up and disbanded at the discretion of the town's civil authorities, participating in everything from chasing off bandits and raiders to helping to overthrow oppressive governments that have seized control of the Fort. In total the militia numbers about 25 irregulars. Department of Crime Prevention & Protection The Department of Crime Prevention & Protection was formed when the Commission held its first meeting back in the early days of the fort. They created the Department to act as the civil law enforcement entity within the walls of the Fort, made up of the survivors of the Brownsville Police department. The various deputies have, over the years have proven themselves to be rather effective in their jobs as both law enforcement officers and as support to the Militia when the need arises. For equipment, most of the officers and deputies are armed with various 9mm and 10mm pistols along with revolvers that either the officer owns personally or the Department issues them, as for uniforms, the deputies will wear traditional police blues covered in the various equipment they need to do their job effectively along with the brass star that gives them their authority. Along with the regular officers, the Department has two sub-departments setup for specific duties. Brownsville Circuit Court The Brownsville Circuit Court was again formed in the first meeting of the Commission with the various members of the Commission awarding Eugene Rogers the post as Chief Justice, making him the first man to hold this post. It is the job of the court and the judge to prosecute criminals, discern right from wrong and make sure that the Fort and the people within and without it are governed equally and fairly. Office of Land Management Formed when the first Brahmin ranchers moved into the Fort in 2103, the Office of Land Management's sole job is to manage the various tracts of land that the Commission or various leaders of the Fort have set aside for ranching and farming. Deciding what will be grown in what plot, who owns what piece of land and so on. To add they also settle disputes between individuals over property rights, regulate water purification and actively combat cattle rustlers and land grabbers whenever this is deemed to be necessary. Fort Brown Cattlemen's Union The Cattlemen's Unio is the only true political force currently residing in Fort Brown. Formed in 2205 by a group of ranchers it has been a major political force in the town ever since, with its members actively lobbying to have the tariffs set on cattle drives drastically lowered if not eliminated to foster improved trade relations with communities surrounding Fort Brown. As of currently it holds no seats in the Committee and has three in the Trade Commission. Trade Relations Commission This special board of notables is solely responsible for setting tariffs on incoming and outgoing trade along with ensuring that the various trade routes that leave the area of Fort Brown are clear and safe for traffic, to this end the Commission is allowed to hire mercenaries, hire guns, and recommend to the Committee that the town's militia be called up, should the need arise, to keep the town's trade routes open. Economy Culture Relations The Duchy of Hartsville Falfurrias The town of Falfurrias and Fort Brown have had a rather cool relationship throughout the past. Due to the fact that the Fort ranches and raises Brahmin, but also tolerates Longhorns the Fort and Falfurrias haven't had the calmest relationship in the past. On several occasions, the Falfurrias Cattlemen's Association have hired mercenaries and Comancheros to harass the fort along with the caravans and cattle drives that come and go from the town itself. The goal being, to force the Longhorn ranchers that live in or around Fort Brown back into Mexico, yet the few ranchers who do raise Longhorns have remained strong in the face of Falfurrias' aggression, often times using the money they make to hire mercenaries of their own to guard their ranches. La Legion de La Gente La Ciudadela Texican Caravan Company Ever since the TCC's foundation, Fort Brown has welcomed the company's business and merchants. Category:Places Category:Communities Category:Tamaulipas Category:Texas Category:Adoptable